


No Man's Land

by OriginalImpossibleSouffleGirl



Series: Sleepy Holloween [2]
Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Introspection, Sleepy Holloween Week, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 04:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2534765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OriginalImpossibleSouffleGirl/pseuds/OriginalImpossibleSouffleGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abbie has been injured grievously by Henry, and Crane has trouble with his feelings as he visits her in the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Man's Land

**Author's Note:**

> Day Two of the Sleepy Holloween Event on Tumblr.

She seems small lying in the hospital bed as he quietly closes the door behind him.

He hadn't noticed how small she really was--not when she was standing commandingly, weapon pointed at whatever hell-beast threatened, face determined and unbearably lovely. A warrior.

She doesn't look like a warrior now. She looks... fragile.

He approaches the bed slowly, allowing his eyes to move over her form, knowing that from now on the sight of her here would be emblazoned in his memory. She was pale, a small cut on her eyebrow. If he allows himself to be deceived, he could believe nothing was wrong; that she had never took the brunt of Henry's attack trying to save him; that her surviving it was uncertain.

"Lieutenant," he says softly, hoping with his entire being that she would open her eyes and smile at him.

"Abbie," and his voice breaks on her name.

He reaches for her hand. Needs to touch her to feel like he's not losing her. That this is not watching her die.

But when he holds it, it's limp and so damn _tiny_ and he can't hold the tears back, nor the anger.

"You _fool,_ " he says, and he's not sure if he refers to himself or to her.

"If it comes down to you or me, Abbie, you let _me_ die, damn you! You are needed here! I'm the anachronism, the superfluous element! I was brought here for  _you!_ You can survive without me, but I can't--"

He has to stop, breathing raggedly.

"I can't see you give yourself over for me, please... Not again, Abbie."

He waits, waiting for her hand in his to twitch, to turn, to grasp his. When it doesn't, he lays it down, and moves away.

"I know all the sacrifices you make for me. You believe I don't, but I do. I see all the things you do not say for fear of seeming selfish or whatever other twaddle."

He's at the window, now, gazing out of it, his hands restless.

"You have sacrificed no small share of comfort so that I may retain mine, and I _notice._ I have been blind, and I have been callous, and I have been selfish and you have paid for my mistakes many times over, so you _stop this right now._ I will not allow you to do this, Abigail Mills, I _forbid it_!"

He has turned and is shouting now. He doesn't realize how loudly until the door opens and Jenny is there, her brow furrowed in worry.

"Crane?"

He looks at her, and whatever she sees in his eyes makes her nod sadly.

"I'll just... be outside, okay? If you need me."

He gives her a barely perceptible nod, and she leaves, closing the door behind her.

Crane approaches the bed again and kneels beside it.

He doesn't know what this is. It's not grief, for she hasn't died-- _and won't,_ a stubborn part of him insists. He is denied her full presence, yet is also denied finality. A strange no man's land, this.

He rests his forehead on her bed, inches from her hand.

"Please, Abbie," he whispers, and it's the last thing he says for hours.

**Author's Note:**

> Hate hurting Abbie, but love hurting Crane. And to hurt Crane, I have to hurt Abbie. Now I hurt. :(


End file.
